Figurative Language Lesson 1

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes.

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.

Tomorrow,I'll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody'll dare Say to me,

"Eat in the kitchen,"

Then.

Besides, They'll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed--

I too am America.

This is my fravourite poem which is about the problem of the African Americans and the 'Whites' in America. In this poem, the author uses some elements of figurative writing. The elements of figurative writing are as follows

1. 
   
   
   hyperbole - words used to express emotion (exaggerated).



2. 
   
   
   pesonification - to represent an object with human characteristics



3. 
   
   
   metaphor - is a figure of speech and or phrase that one word as being or equal to a second object in some way.A metaphor does not make use of the words 'like' or 'as'



4. 
   
   
   simile - A simile is a figure of speech comparing two unlike things, often introduced with the word "like" or "as".



5. 
   
   
   symbolism - it is to use something to signify something else ( a feeling... )

In this poem, the author makes use of the elements, symbolism and metaphor.

Symbolism is used when 'darker brother' is used to describe the African Americans. The author uses this to describe them as the skin colour of the African Americans are brown which is much darker than that of the 'whites'. The writer uses this way to describe the African American to allow us to picture the looks of them and maybe to see the difference between the blacks and the whites.

Metaphor is used when the author in this part ' I too am America'. This shows that the African Americans are also part America. The writer might have wanted to express that harmony should be there between the two groups of people. Both groups of people should have been united as one since they are from the same country.

Why is this my favourite poem? I must say that it highlights the needs of unity in a country. Well I am a peace loving person. And someone like me would not like to have wars fights or any other violence around us. Well people in the same country should work together regardless of the race. Yes different people have different believes and thinking. These might not make you very happy, for example a person burning incense to pay respects to their gods. And someone else might not be very happy with that as they say that it pollutes the air, causing the problem of Global Warming to deteriorate( sounds funny but true ).

If we should not complain, what should we do? Of course we need to respect it. After all we are a country, one people.

Another reason why I like this poem is because this poem is similiar to Obama's life. Yes it does. Obama is an African American, part of the group of Americans who were not really respected by the whites in the beginning. This is just like the line ' when the crowds come, they send me to the kitchen to eat.' But when Obama became president, he was respected as he helped the people of his country and also put warmth to the coldness between the two groups of Americans. He has showed what the darker brothers of the country can do.This is just like the line ' but I laugh, I eat well and grow strong.Tomorow I'll be at the table, when company comes, nobody will dare to ask me to go to the kitchen to eat, besides they will see how beautiful I am and be ashamed'

So after reading this post, why not give your friends from other races a pat on the back and spend time with them. And also with many different races in the country, we too gain, as we are able to gain more exposure!!

Book review 4 - Escaping The Giant Wave

Now for the last book review of the holidays.Similarly, the story board of this book also takes place during the holidays. It is about this boy named Kyle, who thought that spending a vacation on the Oregon coast might with his family would be great fun. He had never flown before and had also not seen the Pacific Ocean. But who knows that this vacation became a disaster.

Let me introduce the characters. They are:
Kyle - protagonist
Beebee - protagonist's sister
Mother - protagonist's mother
Father - protagonist's father
Daren - bully
Hazeltons - Daren's parents

This story started off interestingly with the teacher asking her pupils to set four goals for their holidays so they would accomplish them and become a better person. Kyle's friend Gary set a goal to grow to a height of six feet. Everyone in class, including the teacher laughed. Then the teacher said that one should set goals that he or she is able to control and work on it. Kyle's goal were as follows:

1) Raise his batting average to over 250
2) Learn to pop a wheelie on his scooter
3) Get his parents to increase his allowance
4) Make Daren leave him alone

Kyle was confident that he would be able to achieve numbers 1 and 2 as all he needed was practice. Number three and four would be more challenging as they require courage. Daren was a the bully in the school. No matter how many times he was being sent to the principal's office, there were no signs of improvement in his behavior. Kyle met Daren when he was 5, on the first day of kindergarten. He came up behind Kyle and bonked Kyle on the head with a box of crayons. As Kyle did not want to be called a crybaby, he walked away from Daren and did not do any thing after that. Big mistake.

From then on, Daren sneaked on Kyle everyday. Daren punched, poked, tripped and shoved Kyle. But something was similar about every bully act that Daren committed on Kyle. That is they never broke the skin or bruise Kyle. When Kyle was in the first grade, being bullied by Daren had become a regular part of his life. Size was only the part of the reason why Kyle ignored all the bullying acts by Daren. The other reason was because fighting was not the way Kyle loved to settle things. When dealing with reasonable people, Kyle can settle any differences with discussions and compromise. But Daren was not reasonable. Daren was a mean trouble maker.

That afternoon, Kyle emptied his locker of all the year's accumulation. These included a petrified apple core, a coupon good for twenty cents of a bag of jellybeans (expiry date: two months ago). three overdue library books and a pair of socks. (Does Kyle even know what does he have in his locker?)

At home, when Kyle was eating crackers, Mother made a surprise announcement. She said that as Kyle was old enough , it is no longer needed for them (father and mother) to hire a sitter to look after he and his sister for he was going to do the job. Kyle immediately asked about the amount of money that he was going to be paid for doing so (eager to complete his summer goals and be a better person). Mother was disgusted and said that he will not be paid as he was part of the family and should contribute what he could. Kyle had to baby sit as his parents were to attend a function.

Kyle's sister Beebee was a financial whizz. When she was two, she wanted a calculator and refused to play with dolls. Last Christmas when she wanted to get a picture with Santa, she asked him to bring her shares of a stock company. As expected, Santa was shocked and said: " I'll try". Maybe Santa could not bring everything a person wants.

That night after the function, Kyle's parents announced that they were going to the Oregon Coast. Beebee asked how father got the money from and said that if he won those money by winning lottery, he had made the wrong choice of buying lottery as the chances of winning are terrible and would be a waste of money (this shows how much she is a financial whizz) . Father said that he was the salesman of the year and that he and his wife would have their expenses paid and were taking them along. Then mother unfolded one of the brochures and said that that was the hotel that they were staying at. Fir trees lined a curved drive way that led to a lodge. Each room overlooked the Pacific Ocean and had a stone fireplace. Baskets of pine cones and apples adorned the bedside tables. The hotel had two swimming pools, one indoor and one outdoor. Beebee then jumped after seeing how much it cost to have a night at this hotel- $375. She asked if there was a Motel 6 around the beach and that that would allow the family to save $1500. (She is a financial whizz).

The family spent the next three weeks planning what to do on the beach. Mother informed that the company had rented a yatch named Elegant Empress and that the celebration was only an all-adults one so Kyle had to baby sit Beebee again.

Finally the day of departure arrived. As Kyle was standing at the big windows watching the plane taxis, someone called him. It was Daren. He too was also going to Oregon Coast and that his parents are also attending the celebration on the Elegant Empress. When Kyle asked Daren where he was staying at during the trip, he was disappointed with Daren's answer. Then Kyle decided that this was the time to make Daren leave him alone and accomplish one of his goals.

The hotel that the Davidsons (Kyle's family) and the Hazeltons did not look like the one on the brochures.Instead of the driveway with the fir trees, there was a plywood side walk, the ones found at construction sites and there was a sign showing the way to the lobby. A bulldozer, rumbled back and forth and the swimming pool was empty. When they were at the lobby, a too cheerful person greeted them: " Welcome to the Frontier Lodge! We were delayed by a labor dispute and you will be living across the street at the Totem Pole Inn".Then a bellhop took them to their room. It was a very old hotel built in 1928. Three presidents have stayed here and the place was popular with celebrities. The lift had broken down and as their room was on the third storey, the bellhop took mother and father's luggage while the two children carried their own. There were no first storey rooms as they did not have furniture (this hotel was going to be teared down soon)

The next day, the Davidsons got up early and after breakfast at the Frontier Lodge, they went to the beach. The view was picturesque. Waves lapped the shore and the gulls swooped above. Then, the family spotted a sign. It was about the procedure on escaping a tsunami. Father read the instructions out and the children. Then father said: "Let's forget about the tsunami and enjoy ourselves.

In the evening, the parents went to attend the celebration. The children ordered pizza and milkshakes. Then, Beebee wanted to buy a candy. Kyle allowed her to go to the Candy Machine to buy the candy while he stayed in the room as he knew that Mother would call back to check on them. After answering Mother's call, Beebee was still not back. She was stuck in the elevator. Kyle then went to call the reception. Shortly after the call, Beebee was back. Kyle was relieved and angry at the same time. He confronted his sister and then both of them started to eat.

Suddenly, an earthquake struck. The whole room was swaying and everything fell on to the floor. Then Beebee screamed: "Ouch!" This made Kyle realise that he had to make sure that they were safe. So he instructed Beebee to get down on to the floor and place her hands above her heads. A loud explosion was heard and the shaking stopped. A pungent smell was in the air. Kyle opened the door and was horrified to see the corridor filled with smoke. He took a wet towel and gave it to Beebee and then both of them ran out of the hotel. On the way, Kyle stumbled across the unconscious body of Daren at the stairwell. Both Beebee and Kyle dragged him down the stairwell. Suddenly, Daren woke up and Kyle explained to him the situation they are in. Daren shouted the word fire and pushed both of them away and ran.

After the siblings ran down the last few steps, Kyle noticed that the lobby was in fire.They ran as fast as they could to the exit. Kyle got his hand burnt by the brass handle of the exit door but he beared the pain and opened the door.Finally they were out.

The new hotel was on fire too. Then Daren approached them. The trio asked about each other's well being. Kyle remembering that earthquakes could cause tsunamis, decided to run uphill. On the other hand, Daren decided to go to the beach near the sea as water will not burn. Kyle was not sure whether this was the right choice but the thing that kept him going was his father's voice reading out the instructions. After walking for a while, the duo heard the sounds of cows. They then strained to hear the sounds and found that it was a recording. Kyle thought that this was the work of farmers and when any cow does not come home, they will play the recording so that the stray cows hear it and know where to go.

The duo went on and heard someone following behind them. It was an old couple with a dog. The old woman told the children to go up the hill as there has been a tsunami warning. Curious, Kyle asked how they knew that there was a warning and the man said that they heard the cows mooing. (The town council decided that cows mooing was not as frightening as a siren)

On the Elegant Empress, the party was in full swing . Just then, the president of the company informed everyone on board that there was an earthquake on the Orgen Coast. This made the Davidsons and the Hazletons nervous.

Beebee asked why were there no other people coming up with them. The woman said there were many false alarm and that the people no longer trusted the signal. There were some people still on the beach and they were waiting excitedly for the arrival of the huge wave and counted every minute that went past. Daren was also there thinking what a fool Kyle had been. On the other hand, the four people climbing uphill continued their way up. Then they heard the first wave roaring in. It went up close to them and they immediately climbed up further. After a while, the woman decided that her legs could take her up no more and decided to take a break. The man followed her and let the dog followed the kids. The children climbed up further inland. Beebee soon got tired. They too decided to rest. So they hid behind a tree and hoped that the tree would help them. The dog started shivering vigorously and the next wave roared in. It was worse than the first. Many trees were being up rooted and Kyle lost faith in his idea that the tree would protect them. The waters rose to their ankles.

The children were dead beat and wanted to sleep. So they rested against a tree. Luckily nothing happened in the night.

The next morning, the siblings and the dog made their way down the hill. The scene was as if it was the end of the world. Hungry, they searched for food. Kyle found a refrigerator nearby and ate the bread in the refrigerator. Then they stumbled across a few cans of seven up and drank them. The dog was also fed bread and seven up.

A tentage was set up at the beach and sandwiches and drinks were being served there. That was the place where people came to search for their relatives. After getting some sandwiches and drinks from the counter, the siblings went to join the queue. Daren then came. He survived as he hid in the lift tower. He wanted to pick on Kyle's sister when Kyle stopped him and said:" You there lay a finger on her and you will regret." Daren was shock and then went to get some food.Just then, the old man came, without his wife.He told that his wife was unable to cling on to the tree branch and was swept away. He wanted to go with her but wanted to see his gran children grow up. Then a man announced that anybody who wants to enquire about the Elegant Express are to follow him. There, a big reunion between the siblings and their parents was seen.

Back at home, Kyle got his allowance up for taking good care of his sister during the disaster and Daren never made fun of him anymore.

Well I think living in Singapore is really something to be proud of because our small little island is free of natural disasters. We do not have the 4 seasons and our weather is always hot.But we are natural disaster free. Isn't that something to be thankful of?

Book Review 3 - How To Disappear And Never Be Found

How To Disappear And Never Be Found is a captivating book that keeps me wanting to know more. The way the writter writes this book makes me really feel that I am in the story. The choice of words and drawings gave the book life.

Before I start on the story, let me introduce the main character. Her name is Margaret. And she hates sports. She once made a statement that whoever invented or started Physical Education must have hated children. Well most of you out there, I suppose, strongly disagrees with that. For me Physical Education is the best subject ever. It is the only subject in school that hardly needs you to rack your brains for an answer. All you need to do is play with the ball or run for some distances. It is Physical Education that allows you to sweat ( I love the feeling of sweating), soak yourself under the warm rays of the sun and relax. Anyway the lives of us students are always filled with pressure, datelines, notes, homework, examinations, projects, CCAs and more. Since Physical Education is to make your life interesting and less stressful, why not take advantage of it!

Now, for the story.Margaret always knew that something was different about her family. She herself was a normal six grader. But Margaret felt that something was strange about her mother. Her mother did not seem to talk about anything anymore after the mysterious drowning death of her father three years ago. Then one day, Margaret's mother took her and her sister to an old abandoned house and placed a 'For Sale By Owner' sign in the front yard. Mother forbade them to enter the house and spoke nothing about it. But who have lived there? And why was mother keeping it a secret? Why did they take ferry ride to this place just to place the sign? These were questions that appeared in Magaret's mind. Just then, Mother asked Margaret to take somthing from the house. This was the chance that Magaret can look and see what was in the house and how it looked like.

It was filled with all sorts of things, from floor to ceiling. There were so many things that Magaret could have stayed there for days and explore what was in the house. Then she remembered her task. Upon leaving the house, Magaret spotted a package that had her mother's name on it. It was sent 4 years ago to her mother but her mother had sent it back. Curious, she took the package and stuffed it in her jeans and pulled her sweatshirt low to cover that part of her jeans. Then she ran out of the house to her mother.

At home, Magaret opened the package secretly and found a swimming medal ( first place ), a comic book, and a key. Opening the package was not easy. It was made hard as her sister had hidden the package a few times. Not knowing what all those things meant and convinced that her father's death, her mother's silence and the spooky mansion were all related, Magaret went back to the mansion secretly. She opened the door of the mansion with the key and entered it. Everything was fine after entering the mansion until she heard some strange noises and she ran out of the house. She dropped her backpack in the house accidently while escaping.

After that, she met a boy by the name of Boyd. Boyd was a boy who was a lonely comic-obsessed person. He was obsessed with the comic by the name of Ratt.He had read all the volumes of the comic book except for the first one, which was in Magaret's backpack. It was a story about two good friends who turned into monsters. One a half man half mouse and the other a Drowning Ghost. It was said in the comic that the Drowning Ghost would come out every month when the moon is full to haunt someone and drag him into the water and then dig out his eyes( this was because the crabs under the sea had eaten both the Drowning Ghost' eyes ). Boyd believed that all these were true. There was something about the comic that was strange. All the actions and thoughts that Boyd and Magaret did were all drawn in the book. Every detail was there. Was Ratt following both of them?

(Let me tell you more about the book. The book was actually found in the library near Boyd's school. This library was no ordinary one. All the books inside were all hand written by the people of the neighbourhood. There were no published books in there. Boyd was a usual patron of the library, in fact, the only one most of the time. He spotted the comic book on one of his visits to the library. A new edition of the comic book would strangely appear everyday at night.)

Boyd and Magaret tried to get near the house and find clues but before they even enter the house, they were always frightened by the sounds that came out from the house and ran away. One day, the duo came out with a plan to sneak into the house. When the full moon was shinning through the window of the top floor( this is when Ratt will go out of the house as said in the comic book) both of them sprang into action. Magaret went into the house firstly, to get her backpack back , secondly, to find out more about her father in the first volume of the Ratt comic . She found out from there that the swimming medal belonged to her father. When she was about to leave, Magaret was horrified to find a comic strip that had her sister with Ratt, on his boat.

Knowing that her sister was in danger, Magaret rushed to the dock with Boyd trying to keep up. Boyd operated his father's motorboat to find her sister. Magaret found it hard to call out her sister's name with all the noise around her. Then Magaret found her sister on a boat with Ratt! There was a hubbub. Boyd's parents had called for a search party and there were lights coming out from the house. It was the police. They were searching the mansion. Seeing all these happening, Ratt carried Sophie(Magaret's sister) and jumped into the water. This made Magaret panic. Without thinking, she jumped into the water trying to find them. She was finding it hard to swim as the weight of her jeans and clothes pulled her down. Suddenly, Magaret was lifted up. It was Ratt.

Magaret asked : " Why did you do that? Why did you take my sister?"

Ratt: "I only wanted to tell her everything."'

Magaret: " Why her and not me?"

Ratt: " I know that you came here for your father. I only wanted to tell her the truth. I am your actually your uncle and the Drowning Ghost is your father. Your father comes out of the water every month because he wanted to take a last look at his children"

After hearing this, Magaret looked at Ratt with in a different attitude. There was softness in her eyes. There was a family reunion. Magaret was enjoying the prescence of her uncle when Boyd had thrown a life preserver near Magaret. She held on and asked Ratt to hold on to it too. The search party's boat was getting nearer and nearer at the same time. As Ratt was still not ready to be seen by other human beings, he crept away.

Boyd pulled Magaret nearer to the boat he was in and wrapped her in a woollen cloth found on the boat. The the search party's boat then stopped next to Boyd's father's boat and a man on it brought Magaret and her sister on to their boat. Magaret immediately asked about her sister and was relieved to hear that Sophie had been already saved.

Back on land, Magaret's mother ran and gave her daughters a hug. She also apologised for hiding the truth from them for such a long time. Boyd's parents offered to let Magaret and her family stay at their house for a day.

This story ended happily. Magaret's mother had removed the "FOR SALE BY OWNER" from the mansion and Ratt had sent a letter of thanks to her. Boyd told a boy about Ratt's story from the comic books and the number of 'listeners' increased significantly as the boy brought friends and the friends brought even more friends. Boyd told them that the comic books could be found at the library (the one that Boyd always visited) and that very day, the library became very crowded. Soon there were not enough books to go around and the children left a note at the front porch of the mansion to ask for more copies, together with some small gifts. The note and the gifts disappeared and the next day, a stack of Ratt books appeared at the front porch. The children were elated.

Apart from the mystery of Magaret's father, this book is also about frienship. One day during Physical Education class, one of Magaret's classmates Tina Louise got hitby the ball and fainted on the ground. Then there was a spot on her pants and it grew bigger and bigger. Tina Louise was peeing on her pants!

The next day, everyone teased Tina but Magaret met her at the bus stop. Magaret asked Tina if she was alright. This was the first time that Magaret had ever talked to her. They took the same bus home and became friends. Tina was the first person that knew what was in the package other than Magaret herself. Tina was also the one whom Magaret thought of for advice when she was scared or in trouble. And very often, these advices would really work. This is the work by THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP

This book is both frightening and funny so do yourself a favour and go read it. Lastly, be careful who is behind you as it might be Ratt.

Book Review 2 - Animal Farm

Here is book review number two, about the story Animal Farm. I first got to know this book when my English teacher introduced it in class. I must say that my teacher has really introduced the right book! It is really interesting despite it having only 89 pages.

The first few pages of the book highlights the cruelty in which man treat their animals with. " Now comrades what is the nature of this life of ours ? Let us face it : our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. We are born , we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us that are of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength ; and the instant that our usefulness has come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty" This is one such part that shows the cruelty of man. For farmers out there , this might be an insult to you but remember after all this is just a story.

With evil deeds done , there is sure to be some kind of revenge. And that is where the conflict starts. So the animals planned their attack. When the planning was done , they carried out the plan. After just a few minutes of struggle, all the farmers surrendered and were seen running for their lives. Victory. Sweet victory.

Now that the humans are all gone, the farm was now theirs. The animals had to run the farm on their own. So like in the human world, there were laws being passed. Here they are:

1. Whatever goes on two legs is an enemy


2. Whatever goes upon four legs or has wings is a friend


3. No animal shall wear clothes


4. No animal shall sleep on a bed


5. No animal shall drink alcohol


6. No animal shall kill any other animal


7. All animals are equal

The name of the farm was also changed from Manor Farm to Animal Farm. To run the farm is like running a country. You will have to have some people who are able to organise things for the farm. This job was given to the pig as they were able to read and write. Education was also given to animals. They learnt basic English. The classes were a success and by autumn, almost every animal in the farm was literate in some degree. The pigs, dogs and goats were able to read properly while Clover learnt the whole alphabet but could not put them together to form words. The horses could only remember A B C D of all the alphabets.

The farmers were angry that their farm was being taken away from them and wanted revenge. So in early October, they launched their attack. But the animals were still too strong for them and the battle is lost almost immediately and one farmer was being killed. After the battle, the animals reassembled in the wildest excitement, each recounting his own exploits in the battle at the top of his voice. An impromptu celebration of the victory was held. Then the sheep that had died in the battle was given a solemn funeral.

In January of the next year, many meetings were held in the barn. Many different suggestions were being brought up there. Two animals were on constant disagreement with each other. They are Snowball the pig and Napoleon the boar. Each had his own following and violent debates happened. Then one day, Snowball suggested that a windmill could be built in the farm. He mentioned that the windmill when attached with a dynamo was able to supply the farm with electricity and this could be used to run machines that could reduce the work load of the animals. As usual, Napoleon disagreed. When the day of the voting whether the windmill should be carried out took place, Snowball gave a speech that won over Napoleon's. Napoleon casted a peculiar side long look at Snowball and uttered a high pitched whimper . Then large fierce dogs came charging towards Snowball. The dogs chased him out of the farm and was seen no more. Snowball was expelled.

It was later known that the plans of building a windmill was originally Napoleon's and that Snowball took this idea to gain the popularity of the rest of the animals. Snowball had also been in contact with farmers from neighbouring farms and thus he was a dangeruos person and a bad infuence. Now that Snowball was out of the way, the windmill plan was carried on. Nepoleon then became the leader of the farm.

Given Snowball's evil character, there is sure to be revenge. These happened quite frequently. One of the things that he did was to destroy the half completed windmill. This caudes heart ache in many animals as it took them much pain and sweat to build it up. After some acts of revenge from Snowball, Napoleon made a rule that anyone who had been in touch with Snowball was to be punished by death. Soon, several animals were being punished.

After a period of time, the farmers came back to Animal Farm, determined to get their farm back . This time there were fifteen of them. Six with guns.The battle was hard and there were more deaths. In the end, the animals still won. After losing this battle, the farmers had given up fully. They had even made peace with the animals.

This story ended with the farmers attending the ' open house' of the animals' farm. There , the animals played cards and drank with the human and showed them every part of their farm. Napoleon also announced that the farm shall be called Manor Farm once again.

This story strongly highlights the things that happen in a government . There are those government officials that are corrupted and bad while there are also those that are good and does things for the sake of his people.

Book Review 1 - The Arrival

The Arrival is a graphic novel. An interesting one. This story is about a man who sets off for a new country , where he has to build a new life for himself and his family. Of course this man's journey is not always smooth and has met with many difficulties. There was a problem in communication. The man does not know how to speak and write in the language that was used in the new country so he had to communicate with the people using pictures.


Another problem that was faced was trying to adapt to the new enviroment. This story took place in a "fairytale" land, whereby ships in the story were able to float in air and pets looked like strange creatures. You can see examples on the picture on the right. Some of these things looked different from the country he came from. Such as how the food looked like in the new country. With the difficulty in trying to communicate with the people there and the much difference between the two countries, adaptation was made difficult.

The man also had to find a job to support himself. Like in the real world, job opportunities are hard to come by. The man went to several places but to no avail. He finally found a job which required him to put up posters. As he could not understand what was being writen on the poster, he put up every peice upside down. this made his employer angry and fired him. The next job he found was the job of a delivery man. Half way in his work, he met a horrifying creature. He dropped down the basket of food and ran for his life. At last he got a stable job at a factory .

In the new country, the man had gotten help from quite a lot of people. All these people had something in common. All of them had an unhappy past. The man got help from a women who once worked as a slave in small factory. She was one of the many girls that were forced to work as slaves. She was supposed to make sure that the fire does not go out. So she had to use a shovel and continue adding coal to the fire. When the woman can take it no longer, she took the shovel and secretly forced the door open and then hopped on to a train moving nearby. That is how she got to the new country and escaped hardship.

The story is also about family. At times, the man would take out the picture of his family and looked at it with sorrow in his eyes. This shows that the man misses his family very much.

There was a fairytale ending in this story.The man's wife and child reunited with him in the new country. There was a sense of happiness when they were united together. All of the three were smiling and hugged each other.

From this story, I learnt that the lives of immigrants are tough although the purpose of immigrating to another country is to be able to lead a better life. There are many obstacles in an immigrant's life and he has to be strong to overcome them. I also learnt the importance of family. Family manbers are the ones who are there when you need help. They are the ones who would stand by you and support you all the way no matter what situation you are in. So treasure their prescence!

Overall, I think that this book is worth 'reading' and is thought provoking. It strongly shows the struggles of an immigrant and importance of family. So do yourself a favour. Go and read this book!

Character Analysis- Village By The Sea

The last few post of my blog are all about the story book The Village By The Sea. I written a book review on the book and shared with you my experiences when acting out Chapter 10 of the book. Now let me do a character analysis of some of the characters.

Hari

1. he is the protagonist of the story


2. he is the only son of the family


3. he has to assume the duty of taking care of his parents and his siblings.


4. he leads a hard life as he has to make decisions which adults have to make

Lila

1. she is the eldest daughter of the family and is the elder sister of Hari


2. given up school to help maintain the house

Bela and Kamal

1. they are the younger sisters of Hari and Lila


2. they are dtill schooling


3. both of them help Lila in managing the house.
   

Mother

1. She is the mother of Lila, Hari, Bela and Kamal


2. She fell ill with anaemia and is getting weaker by the day.


3. She is unable to take care of her children, protect them from their drunkard father nor work

Father

1. he is the father of Lila, Hari, Bela and Kamal


2. irresponsible father


3. drunkard


4. wastrel


5. wastes money on toddy


6. turned over a new leaf in the end

Pinto

1. the pet dog of Hari's family


2. faithful to the family especially Lila as she spent the most time with him

Bijiu

1. richest man in the village that Hri and his family live in


2. owns the first diesel powered boat in the village


3. proud and arrogant


4. looks down on the other villagers

Ramu

1. he is the friend of Hari


2. knew that many factories are going to be built in the village and believes that he will be able to get a job there.

Jagu

1. he is the owner of the Sri Krishna Eating House


2. gave Hari a job when he is in Bombay


3. lives in a slum

Mr Panwallah

1. He is a watch mender


2. popular with his neighbours


3. taught Hari how to mend watches

de'Sivas family

1. rich and generous family from Bombay


2. comes to Thul during the holidays


3. owns a bungalow in Thul


4. brought Hari's mother to the hospital and paid for the medical fees.

watchman of the factory

1. hostile towards the villagers


2. looks down on the villagers

Sayyid Ali

1. supported the point that factories should not be built in Thul


2. spent his time drawing birds

Adarkar

1. member of the Maharashtra State Legislative assembly


2. led the villagers to Bombay to protest against the building of factories in Thul

Hira bai

1. she is an old women who is interested in herbs and cures


2. loves toddy


3. sent the medicine man to Hari's mother.

Jagu's wife

1. cares very much about her family


2. her family is not very rich so she was unhappy when her husband brought Hari home to her house to stay for a day as this adds on to her family's burden

Policeman

1. guarded Hari when he slept in the park

Khanekar brothers

1. drunkards


2. sons of Hira bai


3. wastrels

And there you have it, the character analysis of The Village By The Sea

Drama Sensation

Ever read a book and acted it out? Sure that some of you out there must have done so before. Well that was what my class did. We acted out chapter 10 of The Village By The Sea. Chapter 10 tells us about the struggles that Hari went through in Bombay and the benefactors that helped him along the way.( If you still do not know what I am talking about, you should refer to my earlier post "The Village By The Sea" to get a brief introduction of the story.

The story starts with Mr Panwallah the (owner of a watch repair shop) informing Hari about the arriving monsoon. Mr Panwallah then brings Hari to a festival and buys Hari a coconut and some other snacks.This made Hari feel like a young boy again, a feeling that he has not have for a while.Hari has been leading a very hard life so far. He has to take the role as the father of the family and make decisions that adults have to. Hard for a boy thirteen years old.This scene takes place in Bombay.

The next part of the story takes place in the village where Hari was from, Thul. The fisherman (my role) there were getting ready to set out to sea.They were very eager to get back to sea as they have not done so because of the unsuitable weather. The food in their houses and other neccessities were running out. They were then disrupted by a rich villager by the name of Biju. He is an arrogant man and looks down on the rest of the villagers. Biju also owned the first diesel-powered boat in the village.

The next scene is about Hari falling ill after working long hours in the hot and humid restaurant. Jagu, the owner of the restaurant then brought him home. Jagu lived in a slum area with his wife and children. Jagu later got into a quarrel with his wife as she was unhappy that her husband brought another person home to be taken care of. Their family was already very poor and Hari would only increase their burden.

Last scene, Biju saved some fishermen while some others drowned.Hari's family was also wondering about Hari. When will he come home? This was just one of the questions that they asked themselves, quietly.

I find that this activity is really something that allows us to understand the book well. This method of studying the book allows us to be the characters and react like them, think like them and have the feelings that they have. Learning has also become more interesting, instead of the normal way in which thhe teacher speaks and students sit on the chair, at the same spot, listening. Lastly, we would like to thank our teachers for the encouragement.